Human
by Once Upon a Pairing
Summary: With all of his snarkyness and the incredible power of his inventions, sometimes the other Avengers forgot that outside of the suit, Tony was only human. Even if it's kinda his fault... or, five times the Avengers forgot Tony could only do so much, and one time they knew for sure.
1. 1

1.

"Stark!" A voice snapped over the intercom. "Stick to the plan!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... Don't get your panties in a twist, Cap. They're just Doombots." God, Tony hated Doombots. Not only did they pop up every couple weeks, but there were just so many of them. Not to mention their shells were nearly as hard as the Iron Man suit.

Needless to say, it got extremely annoying after a while.

"I swear to god, next time I see Doom, I am going to shot an arrow in his ass," Clint hissed, probably furiously eyeing the new wave of robots. Nobody said a word, but there was a tone of mutual agreement.

Tony scanned the ground from the skies, a troubled frown settling on his features as he spied two or three getting close to a group of frightened civilians. Too close. He apparently wasn't he only one that noticed. Hawkeye muttered a few words over the link.

However, the good Cap was nearly two blocks away, Natasha couldn't take out so many at once, Clint was almost out of arrows, like hell the Hulk was gonna listen, and Thor was busy with a couple hundred.

Before Steve could bark out the order, Tony was dipping down. "On it, Cap."

Had the man not been so frantic, he probably would have cared about the fact the bots had weird suction cup hands. Had he not been so frantic, he probably would have seen a suction cup hand fired. If he had't been so frantic, he probably wouldn't have let it break the exterior of the clear place covering the reactor and attach itself.

His breathing hitched and warnings far too late of Hawkeye and JARVIS echoed in his ears. Clink! Whoosh! Then the pain in his chest multiplied a hundred times and it was getting harder to breathe and stand. Because this wasn't just a normal invasion, what they really wanted was-

"Sir!" JARVIS exclaimed sharply, effectively bringing Tony out of his shock. "Your heart rate is accelerating! It is advised you retrieve the arc reactor as soon as possible."

But all Tony can do is fall to his knees, gasping. "Tony! Are you alright? Get the reactor back!" Steve's voice spoke in his ear. Everyone knew how important it was to keep the arc reactor technology safe.

"I can't-the arc reactor-it keeps me alive-without it I can't-" Tony barely sputtered out.

But then an arrow wizzes past him and suddenly there's Natasha, and with such a calm face, there's a click as she attaches the baseplate. And sweet, sweet air fills Tony's lungs.

"...God, Stark..." That was all she said before she was off.


	2. 2

2.

After the first incident, they had (for no apparent reason) become slightly over protective of Tony. Not that Tony was complaining. Okay, this was him complaining.

Ever since Fury had demanded (demanded, because the man never asked) that the rest of the team moved into the tower, it had seemed like they were doing everything they could to annoy him. They insisted he come to all three meals (seriously, he could run a few days with just coffee, geez), dragged him of the workshop for sleep (so overrated), and pretty much fucked up his normal schedule so much he felt like he was in boarding school again. This was his house, goddamn it, and he hated to be treated like an invalid.

In short, he was pissed off.

Today was a bad day; the arc reactor had been extra troublesome, and his lungs painfully ached with every halfhearted attempt at a breath. Sure, his lungs ached every day, but not as sharply and as much as it did right now. It _hurt_, but it wasn't like he couldn't deal with it. He was Tony Stark, he'd been dealing with this for years, he'd been through torture, he'd been thrown out a window, he could handle a little chest pain.

But them the fucking _alarm_ went off, and Cap yelled them to assemble, and Tony was offically done with this mission before it even started.

He quickly scampered into the suit, and JARVIS' concerned voice entered the genius' ears.

"Sir, with your current issues, I would advise agains-"

"Shut it, JARVIS. I know. I'll be fine. A little breathing trouble means nothing when a world is at stake."

"The other Avengers are more than qualified to-"

"Got it, JARVIS. Just tell me what we're looking at."

In a second Tony was in the sky, hovering over the city below.

"Sir, it seems to that there are monsters made of earth attacking the city."

"Can they rebuild themselves?"

"I'm afraid so, Sir."

Tony swore, gritting his teeth. "What can they rebuild themselves from?" he asked finally.

"If I had to guess what what I've observed, any type of rock or dirt."

"Got it." Well, that made things easier. "Cap, we have to get them in the river!" It was simple, really. The water would do one (or both) of two things. They would immediately break apart and disintegrate in water, or the attacks against them would be fatal without the rock to regenerate with.

Steve must have mulled it over, because there was silence for a good two seconds. Then, he spoke. "You heard him, Avengers!"

After that, it became so very repetitive, even if it was exhausting. Lure them to the water, get 'em in, attack until they die. Repeat, repeat, repeat...

Tony would have found it insanely boring, if he wasn't finding it more and more difficult to breathe.

With each punch, kick, and hit, he was having increasing trouble putting air in his body. It got to the point where ordered JARVIS to pump pure oxygen through the suit and turn off the mic so the team couldn't hear his strained gasps.

However, after a while of no sarcastic humor, the Avengers began to get suspicious. "Stark, you alright in there?" Natasha questioned.

"Fine!" he replied quickly, trying his best to sound like he wasn't possibly dying of lack of air. Though he couldn't check, he suspected his fingertips might be blue. Also, the black spots clouding his vision and the dizziness probably weren't good sighs either.

"You don't sound fine." He could almost see her raised brow.

"I can take care of it," Tony assured.

She probably would have pushed more if Clint hadn't spoken. "Tash, he's Iron Man. If he's breathing a little hard I'm sure he's fine. He's been battling non stop since he got on the field."

Luckily, the battle was soon over after that. Repetitive battles never lasted too long. Unlike usual, Tony didn't stay long enough to chat. He flew straight to the workshop to get himself out of the suit so he could relax. However, like most planned things, it didn't work out like that.

It wasn't too long later that Steve dropped by, and Tony was too out of it to see him quickly enough to lock him out. "Hey, I just came by because-" But then the man was beside him with eyes widened and the billionaire couldn't remember how he got there, which most likely wasn't okay.

"Oh god, do you have asthma? God, Tony, you never told me! Do you have an inhaler? I can get you one if you-"

Steve was rambling. Steve never rambled.

"No, no, no," he wheezed. "It's my reactor..it squishes my lungs..."

"Why didn't you tell us!" the man demanded.

Tony just shrugged. "Didn't-doesn't matter."

"Of course it does, Tony!" The blonde was getting exasperated now, an expression so much more familiar than the worried one that was there a few minutes ago. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to tell the other Avengers. I don't make a habit of revealing stuff like that, but it could be life threatening and we care about you."

Natashsa didn't speak to Clint for a week.


	3. 3

3.

They'd thought he'd be able to handle a little water, and Tony did too.

Apparently the obviously creative Doom decided to it was a good idea create a giant shark-squid hybrid...thing, (ooh, he was going to get a nice repulser to the face next time the billionaire saw him) and it was currently wrapping one of it's blue, rough tentacles around that nice theater Tony rented out sometimes.

He was not gonna take that shit, no way, so he blew up the apprentage. Then shark-squid was _everywhere_ and Cap was yelling in his ear about getting creature shit all over the streets, and _did he know how long that would take to clean up?_ Tony had automatically calculated it to the last second (six days, five hours, three minutes, and twenty six seconds.), but he just responded with some half-assed pun.

But then apparently the thing was also part starfish too because it grew it back, and Tony just cursed and fired at it again. But then the fucking brand new tentacle wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms. The pressure it applied assured him that he was, in fact, getting crushed like a tin can. The creaks and the groans from the armor weren't telling him any differently. His sight was filled with red warnings, and his ears buzzed with worried exclamations from the team.

There was a sharp crack, and pain in his right arm. Tony thought (and maybe said, he wasn't sure), fuck, because he was 87.527% sure it was broken, the other 13.483% being a fracture. He was okay with that, he'd been through worse.

But then, the screen went dark and JARVIS was oddly silent, then the cold, murky water entered his suit and he was there again.

_He said yes already, why wouldn't they stop?! It was cold, so cold, and it forcefully entered his throat and lungs and ears and god he couldn't breathe and it hurt so bad and so much water, water, water and god, somebody come help him, please, and it was getting dark now, so dark, and he welcomed it._

When he awoke, it was to the smell of sanitizer and bandages. There was a cast on his arm, and what he assumed were IVs in another. There was something up his nose. He then knew it was safe, and opened his eyes to white walls and white sheets and stiffness in his legs.

Then Pepper, and oh god, it must have been bad if her mascara was smeared, and she through her arms around him and sobbed about what an idiot he was.

He pretended that he didn't see Bruce and Steve lingering in the doorway or Clint in the air vents or Natasha in the corner or Thor out the window. But then there was a voice in his ear.

"You should have told them about your PTSD."

Tony remained silent.


	4. 4

4.

The next time it happens the suit isn't on, and Tony's at a press conference.

The woman asks about his usefulness on the Avengers team and he freezes for a moment before deflecting the question with 'No comment' and moving on. Then she continues asking and asking, and _asking_, and her questions get worse and worse and _worse_ until she finally asks him if he thought the team would be better off without him. Luckily, he doesn't have to answer because suddenly there's thick smoke and he's dizzy and there's a hand under his armpit and one around his mouth and then it all goes dark.

Tony had never before been so grateful for a kidnapping in his entire life.

It's normal because they want him to build weapons and he says no, so they torture him. It's better than the waterboarding, he thinks. But then he gets sick of it so he says yes then builds a bomb because they are _dumbasses_ and hightails it out of there. Then he finds a payphone and calls Pepper who against his will calls the Avengers who pick him up.

It's okay that his back is shredded from the bad end of a whip _because anything's better than the waterboarding_ and it's okay that he's a little shaken up but it's kappened before. What's not okay is that they trust him to do a press conference and that _woman is there and she asks, asks, asks_, until he's fed up with it and snaps yes.

He doesn't understand why she looks so shocked, because that was the answer she wanted, and then he leaves because he's just so _drained_.

When he'd out of the limo he ignores everyone but JARVIS and heads down to the workshop to drink himself unconscious, because he is just so done with the mask and just everything.

Because deep down, Tony is done being himself.


	5. 5

5

It was only twenty HYDRA men getting too close to S.H.I.E.L.D, Tony should've been able to take care of it. Hell, he was so bored he'd even volunteered to do it.

But, when they saw Tony, each of them swallowed a pill and their muscles unnaturally ballooned, and suddenly there were twenty ugly as fuck superpowered soldiers. Tony was 75.62% sure that it was somewhat based off of the super soldier serum, or someone attempting to recreate it. Even in the suit, their punches hurt like a bitch, and soon he was just attempting to hold his own.

One well aimed fist near his torso and he finally faltered, blood dripping from his mouth. Another tore off his faceplate, discarding it to the side like it was trash. The final blow was near his arc reactor, and he barely registered the sickening crunch. He flew into a nearby wall, immediately sliding down to a crumpled heap.

By then he was out cold. The other Avengers were now on the scene, too late. They cried out to him, tried to wake him with words. But nothing worked, and they couldn't get close enough to survey the damage on him. Soon the battle was over, the Hulk, Thor, and Steve too much for them, as many as there were, to handle.

When they see Tony there, none of them move for a good three seconds. It was Steve who made the first step. "Tony!"

Tony just laid there still, the light of his arc reactor flickering like a dying bulb.*

They call Pepper.

"Tony keeps a spare in Phil's office. On the top of the bookshelf, there's a white box ," she tells them, her voice betraying her calm facade. "That's it. You don't have long, hurry!"

They do, and a very naked but very unashamed Bruce Banner installs it, and the color in the Stark's face begins to return. He opens his eyes only minutes after.

They laugh in relief and Natasha tells Tony he's no longer allowed to do missions while bored and he just smiles.


	6. plus 1

+1

"Stark, that's a one way trip," Steve stated solemnly, his voice nearly breaking. His words were laced with _No, Tony, you won't make it, it's too much, goddamn you're only human-_

Tony knew, he went over the math one hundred times in his head,_ he knew_-

_(Probability of getting out of New York before missile hits: 46%. Probability of the population of Manhattan being obliviated: 99.68% (.3% of the bomb missing, .02% of the bomb being a dud). Probability of Manhattan surviving if he flew the bomb into the wormhole, effectively destroying both threats: 99.98%. Probability of Tony living through it: less than .01%. Even if Tony wasn't Tony fucking Stark the genius he would have known the best way to go.)_

There was so much light than infinite black and the stars, (oh god, those stars) and for one fleeting moment it was gorgeous. The silence and the space than the explosion, if that wasn't beauty at his finest, than Tony Stark was wrong, and he never was. Then the heat, and the overwhelming relief, and the softest of smiles came over his features. He was the only person to see this _ever_, and everyone was going to live except him, but that was okay. It was always okay. And then nothing.

Absolutely nothing but the darkness and calm acceptance.


End file.
